Monday Mashup

Still trying to catch up...

1) I’ve attacked Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida for some of his wretched votes, but kudos to him for meeting with Assad in Syria, with Specter and others getting ready to follow suit; it’s nice to see some of our elected officials acting like adults for a change.

2) So according to this guy Bellinger (noted in this column), we can’t return some Guantanamo detainees to their countries of origin because those countries won’t take them back? Why don’t we just drop them off then at our third party “proxy” countries that we’re using for torture and let them cut them loose from there?

3) So let’s see – first Barack Obama is criticized because his middle name is Hussein, then Maureen Dowd says that his ears are too big (I wish she hadn't put it that way - should be an innocent enough comment, but it tells you how low the Repugs will go), and now Stanley Crouch of the New York Daily News says that, somehow, Obama isn’t “black enough.”

Crouch tries to cop out by stating the following:

Of course, the idea that one would be a better or a worse representative of black Americans depending upon his or her culture or ethnic group is clearly absurd.

But then, a few paragraphs later, he adds…

So when black Americans refer to Obama as "one of us," I do not know what they are talking about. In his new book, "The Audacity of Hope," Obama makes it clear that, while he has experienced some light versions of typical racial stereotypes, he cannot claim those problems as his own - nor has he lived the life of a black American.

Crouch later states that, if Obama becomes President (and yes, I realize that it’s WAY too early to take this stuff too seriously), he’ll have to enter the White House “through the side door, since that may be the only one that’s open” (and of course, Crouch provides no further explanation on that secretive remark, because if he did, he would end up having to blame the political party that rolls out its “southern strategy” every election year – Crouch also doesn’t really describe what he means when he says Obama hasn’t “lived the life of a black American” since Obama has apparently endured “light racial stereotypes”...if these are direct quotes from Obama's book, Crouch should acknowledge them as such).

Could this entire discussion be more infantile?

Update 12/20: Forget about this woman’s looks and consider the vile garbage she spouts (hat tip to Atrios – I know we’re wise to that by now, most of us anyway, but it bears repeating...never mind, Media Matters put in a new photo).